22 NOETH-EAST AFEICA. 



Nubia, in Abyssinia, and even in Sudan. The smelting and working of iron, most 

 useful of all métallurgie discoveries, bas been attributed to tbe Negroes as well as 

 to tbe Cbalybes of Asia Minor ; and tbe Bongos of tbe Wbite Nile, as well as some 

 otber African tribes, bave constructed furnaces of a very ingenious type. Their 

 smelters and forgers are, for the most part, satisfied with rude and primitive 

 implements, in the use of which they, however, display marvellous skill. The Fans 

 of the Ogowé basin produce excellent iron, whose quality is scarcely equalled by 

 Europeans themselves. In most of the native tribes the smiths constitute a special 

 caste, much respected and even dreaded for their reputed knowledge of the magic 

 arts. In Abyssinia and Senaar they are accused of* changing themselves at night 

 into hyaenas and other wild beasts, which prowl about the villages and disinter the 

 bodies of the dead. 



In agriculture and industry the Africans so far co-operated in the development 

 of human culture. But their direct influence in the trade of the world was felt 

 only through Egypt and Mauritania along the Mediterranean seaboard. Com- 

 mercial intercourse was doubtless carried on throughout the whole continent, but 

 very slowly, and through a thousand intermediary tribes. The produce of Central 

 Africa reached Europe long after all trace of its source had disappeared. In the 

 same way the riverain populations along the banks of the Niger received their 

 Manchester cottons and hardware from Birmingham without suspecting that their 

 river flowed into the sea, or that there are other great divisions of the globe beyond 

 the Dark Continent. Nevertheless, there can be no doubt that for thousands of 

 years an active trade has been carried on with the interior. Down to a recent epoch 

 caravans were regarded as sacred, passing fearlessly through contending armies 

 and across disturbed regions. The spirit of traffic prevails amongst numerous 

 tribes in Mauritania, the Upper Nile, and Sudan, as amongst the Jews and 

 Armenians elsewhere, and their dealers display all the shrewdness, tenacity, and 

 inexhaustible obsequiousness everywhere characteristic of the mercantile classes. 



From time immemorial the cowries of the Maldive Islands {cyprœa moneta^, 

 gradually replacing other small objects, such as grains of durra and various seeds, 

 have penetrated as a symbol of exchange as far as West Africa. Through the 

 Calcutta, London, or Zanzibar routes, they are still imported to the Bight of Benin, 

 whence they are forwarded to the markets of Lake Tsad.* But the natives now 

 use them chiefly as ornaments. European travellers find that the Turkish piastres 

 and Maria Theresa crowns have already preceded them in most of the unknown 

 regions of the interior. The Bongo tribe was even acquainted with the art of 

 minting, and current coins are also the bits of iron four inches long which are in 

 common use amongst the Ogowé Fans. 



But in maritime commerce the Africans scarcely take any part. With the 

 exception of Alexandria, which, thanks to its position on the route between Europe 

 and India is an essentially international point, Carthage was the only continental 

 city that rose to power by its trade. But Carthage was itself a Phœnician colony, 

 founded on a headland projecting into the Mediterranean in the direction of 

 * John E. Hertz, "Proceedings of the Hamburg Geographical Society," 1880-81. 



